40,000 Samsung Devices Were Stolen From Brazil in a Massive Gadget Heist

If you’re waiting for a Samsung product to come in the mail, it may take a bit longer than expected. On Monday night, armed thieves raided a Samsung factory in Brazil during the night shift, getting away with about $6.3 million worth of mobile phones, computers, and other products. São Paulo police state that the gang of men captured eight plant employees that were heading to the factory on a company bus.

Twenty or more robbers were part of the heist. Once the robbers took hold of the company bus and its eight employees, they made way towards the plant, stealing each workers ID badge and taking two as hostages. Eventually they made their way past Samsung security using force and threats.

The thieves filled seven trucks with Samsung products (about 40,000 devices) and drove away. Though the thieves have yet to be apprehended, authorities say they're pouring over surveillance video in order to catch them.

According to the Associated Press, Samsung released a statement saying, “We are fully cooperating with the ongoing police investigation and we will do our best to prevent this from happening again.”

With gadget theft on the rise, it’s understandable how some at Samsung may assume that a heist of these proportions may have been an inside job. After all, it was only last week that Verizon discovered one of its employees stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from one of their stores.